Selfish
by JoeMerl
Summary: Duncan was so selfish. Not like Cody. Right? Cody's bitter, rambling thoughts after the events of "Greece's Pieces." One-sided Cody/Gwen and other canon pairings, one-shot.


**Author's Notes:** I just turned in my last assignment for the semester, so you get fanfiction now. Huzzah!

This is an idea I had when I first heard the "Cody punches Duncan" spoiler, before I even saw "Greece's Pieces." I had to tweak the concept a bit after watching it, and then I've just been sitting on this forever, procrastinating, wondering if this should be a one-shot or a "Total Drama Interactions" chapter...anyway, Cody's reaction to what he learned in that episode. Contains Duncan-bashing, because well, how could it _not_ given the perspective? o_0 Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Cody hated Duncan so much right now.

Admittedly he didn't even know Duncan all that well, and until recently he had never really had strong feelings about the punk one way or the other. Oh, he saw all the lousy things he did on the show, and he had plenty of opportunity to hear complaints about him—Harold hated the guy, Trent still blamed him for contributing to his break-up with Gwen, and the last time Justin had seen him they were still fighting about Courtney. But Cody didn't like to judge people, and besides, not _everything_ about Duncan was so negative—Geoff and DJ liked him, and so did Owen, and Gwen, and anyone _Gwen_ liked obviously had to be okay, right?

Cody honestly believed that Gwen and Duncan were only friends. Really—yeah, they were close, and yeah, they were a guy and a girl with similar interests, and she had called him attractive a few times...but so what? None of that really _meant _anything. Cody had lots of female friends, and he could admit that some of them were hot—like Gwen! Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best example, but after all, Duncan was with Courtney anyway, and he was obviously crazy about her. As far as Cody was concerned, that lovesick face Duncan always got over her was the best proof there was that he wasn't that bad of a guy.

Duncan wouldn't cheat on Courtney. And Gwen certainly wouldn't cheat _with_ Duncan, right?

Oh _man,_ how he had been wrong.

Now, Cody could finally see the truth—Duncan was a jerk, a total and complete jackass, and as far as he was concerned any previous evidence to the contrary was nothing more than proof of what a sneaky, duplicitous rat he really was! Cody was glad to have punched him, and was looking forward to any opportunity to do it again. And to think, he had _defended_ that guy! Defended him to Trent, to Harold, even to Courtney once or twice at the TDA resort, when she was convinced that Gwen was nothing but a trouble-making harpy out to steal him from her. And then that lowlife had gone and made him look like an idiot, breaking the heart of the smart, attractive girlfriend he _already had_ in the first place and snatching Gwen away from him at the same time!

He was so selfish. He didn't deserve Gwen.

Not like Cody did.

Cody was the one who deserved Gwen. That was the thought that kept running through his head now, over and over again—after all, hadn't he given up his chance to be with Gwen in the first season, going so far as to actually try and help her and Trent get together? And he had been happy for them. Really! He'd seen lots of people—people on TD fansites, mostly—who seemed to assume he was miserable or angry or something, but that wasn't true. He thought that they were great together—they seemed to be, anyway—and Cody was perfectly content to play Cupid and just wait for his crush to die. It was only later, when they broke up again, that he began to reconsider that position—maybe she really _was_ the girl for him, maybe her dumping Trent was a sign that his instincts had been right the first time...she liked nice guys, and he didn't have any of Trent's weird issues, so why not give it another go? He was single, she was single, he even asked Trent if he was okay with it—so he went into the new season excited, never expecting to win but truly believing, in his upbeat and optimistic heart, that he would have little problem getting Gwen to see that he was the guy she should set her eyes on.

He spent the whole first half of the season trying to get her to like him.

And then, barely an _hour _after Duncan was back on the plane, she apparently decided that she liked him instead.

Courtney was furious with her, obviously. So were Sierra and Heather, and he could see their point. And heck, some small part of him wanted to hate her for this too, but he couldn't—as hurt as he was, he cared about Gwen too much to take his anger out on her.

Duncan was a different story, of course.

He didn't get it. This wasn't right, this wasn't _fair—_how could this happen? ! And why? He was Cody Jameson-Anderson, dang it! He was a rock star, the President of the Albert Einstein Fan Club at his school two years running, he had an IQ of 126 and placed third in the Manitoba Provincial Science Fair last year! Who was Duncan, huh? Just some punk out of juvie who made everybody's lives miserable. That lousy, two-timing jerk didn't deserve Gwen, _he_ did, _he_ did nothing but try to help her, _he_ treated people with actual respect, _he_ had been forced to endure Sierra's insanity the whole season and dang it, he _deserved _a reward for all that, the only reward he had really wanted since finding out about this stupid around-the-world flying torture session.

And yet...

Gwen had chosen Duncan, the same way she had chosen Trent. But those two things were totally different, right? Trent was Cody's friend, and he was a great guy, and he had been single at the time—none of which you could say about Duncan, the nasty, philandering lowlife that he was! It was stupid for Gwen to have picked him over Cody.

But she _had_ picked him over Cody. The fact was, she liked Duncan, and she had rejected Cody.

Again.

Part of him knew that he should just accept that. Part of him knew that stupid or not, insane or not, it was Gwen's choice who she dated, and that he should respect her decision and be the nice guy again, giving up his chance so that Duncan, that stupid, _selfish_ jerk Duncan, could have his instead, as little as he deserved it. Gwen wasn't a prize to be won, after all—she was a person, an _awesome _person, and she was free to make whatever dating decision she wanted, good or bad. And he just had to deal with it.

But right now, Cody didn't care.

He wasn't going to give up again this time. No, he was going to keep fighting, keep trying to make Gwen see the truth, make her _change_ her decision, screw Duncan or anybody else who didn't like it. Maybe that made him a selfish jerk. But then, that seemed to be Gwen's type these days, didn't it?

This time, he was going to keep trying until Gwen was finally his.

Because after all, hadn't he _earned_ the right to be a little bit selfish?


End file.
